Influence of perceived autonomy support and personality traits on accountability of higher secondary school teachers

Abstract

The term Accountability, has its origin in ethics. It deals with proper behaviour, newlinebeing responsible for one s actions towards other people and agencies. It has synonyms such as transparency, liability, answerability, and expectations of account newlinegiving (Levitt et al., 2008). Every teacher must respect each student, despite of their newlinebackground, race, gender and provide ample support to achieve excellence. The teacher must teach with highest standards without bias, teacher s primary concern must be students academic excellence, and finally teacher is expected to keep up the highest level of professionalism by being respectful to parents, colleagues, and students (College, 2011). Perceived autonomy support refers to the belief of teachers that administrators or principals consider them as competent, to have freedom of choice and the experience of belongingness and supporting environment. Perceived Autonomy Support has its root in Self-determination theory founded on three core psychological needs such as competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Deci et al.,1985). Personality trait refers to a combination of characteristics that are innate as well as characteristics that are developed due to specific life experiences. John et al., (2010) have summarized all the human personality traits under the umbrella term, the Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness). This study examines the relationship among the three major variables such as Accountability of Teachers, Perceived Autonomy Support and Personality Traits. newlineFurther it explores whether Perceived Autonomy Support and Personality Traits have newlineany significant impact on Accountability of Higher Secondary School Teachers. Thirdly it identifies significance of Accountability, Perceived Autonomy Support and Personality Traits and its components across Type of schools, Gender, Age, Marital Status, Teaching Experience, Educational Qualifications and Subjects.